Thursday, December 11, 2008

It's Regan's Turn To Be Sued

Remember Judith Regan?

I mentioned her in multiple posts from November, 2006 to November, 2007.

Regan was the publisher who put together the deal for If I Did It, O.J. Simpson's book, along with proposing a Fox television show to promote the book. The public outcry over that book and TV special was so great that News Corporation's HarperCollins cancelled both plans and subsequently fired Regan. Read my post on the firing here in January, 2007 and a second post three weeks later about HarperCollins dismantling Regan's imprint here.

Ten months later, Regan filed a $100 million lawsuit against her former employers at HarperCollins.

The introduction to the lawsuit said, "This action arises from a deliberate smear campaign orchestrated by one of the world's largest media conglomerates for the sole purpose of destroying one woman's credibility and reputation. This campaign was necessary to support News Corp.'s political agenda, which has long centered on protecting Rudy Giuliani's presidential ambitions."

That got MY attention.

Publishers Lunch reported yesterday that Regan had settled the lawsuit for $10.75 million.

The figure came to light when Regan’s lawyers, Dreier LLP, sued HER for not paying her legal fees after the settlement.

This from Bloomberg.com:
In March, Regan was sued by her former lawyers who accused her of firing them to avoid paying fees from a settlement with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. Regan’s lawyers declined to confirm or deny the settlement amount in Dreier’s court filing.

In its complaint filed in New York Supreme Court in Manhattan, the Dreier law firm alleged Regan retained it to represent her in February 2007 and agreed to pay 25 percent of any money she recovered as a result of a judgment or settlement.
Reuters reports:
Now, Dreier LLP and Redniss and Associates LLC are accusing Regan of not paying $42,560 in [legal] fees [plus their share of the settlement]. . .

The law firms are also suing Bertram Fields, the lawyer Regan hired to settle the lawsuit.
Stay tuned . . .

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Here's the end of your story. REGAN WAS RIGHT. Dreier was arrested and is sitting in jail awaiting trial on charges of massive fraud --- he stole over $100 million, ripped of his clients and fabricated the claims against Regan. Regan won her case against News Corp. They did defame her and lied. And Dreier lied that she didn't pay him. She did -- he wanted more of what she got when he found out she had money and tried to extort her. He deserves to go to prison for the rest of his life.

Maya Reynolds said...

Gemma: Forgive me, but you appear to be confused. Whether Dreier is a crook individually has no impact on whether his law firm rendered services to Ms. Regan or not. All that matters in court is whether the terms of whatever contract they had were met by both parties.

Regan did not win a lawsuit. She agreed to settle with News Corp.